TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State indoor volleyball head coach Chris Poole announced the 2017 season schedule on Friday. The slate will feature nine non-conference contests before 20 matches in ACC play.

“We will again have a very challenging schedule this year,

” Poole said. “In the last eight years, it is common for our non-conference schedule to be rated in the Top 15 in the country. We believe in scheduling competition that will help prepare us for conference and to also give our team the experience to be successful under pressure later in the season. We are going to be very young overall this season. We will have five true freshmen in addition to certain players returning from injury so we will need to work hard in August to evaluate the options we have in the preseason.”

Arizona, TCU, Baylor, Colorado State, and Florida will highlight the non-conference slate, who all competed in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The Seminoles will face eight teams that finished the 2016 season within the top 50 of the NCAA RPI. In addition, the Wildcats (No. 20), and the Gators (No. 15) all finished behind the Seminoles (No. 13) in the final AVCA poll of 2016, while ACC foe North Carolina was ranked 11th.

Florida State will play in three tournaments to start the season, first traveling to Waco, Texas to face the host team Baylor at 8 p.m. on Aug. 25. FSU will play a double header on Aug. 26, facing Illinois State at 12:30 p.m. before taking on UC Santa Barbara at 5:30 p.m.

The Home2Suites Tallahassee Seminole Volleyball Invitational will be the first matches played in the historical Tully Gym in 2017, as FSU welcomes UNC-Asheville on Sept. 1, Colorado State on Sept. 2 and TCU on Sept. 3.

Florida State and Florida A&M will team up on Sept. 8-9 to host Tennessee and Arizona in the FSU-FAMU Classic. Friday’s match against the Volunteers will be at 6 p.m., however Saturday’s contest with the Wildcats is at 4:30 p.m. at Florida A&M due to football facing Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m. at Doak Campbell Stadium.

The Noles will wrap up their non-conference slate with the Sunshine State Showdown in Gainesville, Fla. against Florida at 6 p.m. on Sept. 12.

The first and second Rounds of the NCAA Tournament will run from Nov. 30-Dec.2 at campus sites with Florida State looking to advance to its fourth Regional in five seasons on Dec. 8-9. Those locations have yet to be determined. The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship will be held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. on Dec. 14 and 16.

The television schedule, links and promotions will be released at a later date. The Garnet vs. Gold match will be in Tully Gym on Aug. 19 at either 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.

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